Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed

Question

Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed through the stomach into the bloodstream and was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however,  have led them to conclude  that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol before it reaches the liver.

(A) have led them to conclude 
(B) have led to their conclusion 
(C) have led doctors to conclude 
(D) lead to doctors concluding 
(E) lead to the doctors' conclusion

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egmat · Accepted Answer

Hello denilthomas , You have made a wise choice there.

Choice A cannot be the correct answer because pronoun them actually refers back to Nineteenth-century doctors , suggesting that the very same doctors now have some other conclusion. This meaning most certainly is not logical. Exclusive usage of just the noun doctors correct this reference issue in Choice C . Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

trungnguyenn · Answer

Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed through the stomach into the bloodstream and was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however,  have led them to conclude  that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol before it reaches the liver.

have led  them  to conclude ---  it means the doctors who were mentioned before - the nineteeth-century doctors 
  have led to  their  conclusion ---  same as A 
   have led doctors to conclude  ---  Correct 
  lead to doctors  concluding  ---  not idiomatically correct 
  lead to the  doctors ' conclusion ---  same as A and B

Paulli1982 · Answer

For answer choice C, is ‘have’ required?

What if the answer is ‘led doctors to conclude” or ‘lead doctors to conclude’? Is it still correct?

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septwibowo · Answer

IMO, because we are talking about "recent studies", so simple past (led) less proper here.
Btw, simple present (lead) is debatable here.

XYZABCABC · Answer

Hi Shraddha,

I had a doubt in Choice A. If the words "nineteenth century" were not there, was the usage of "them" correct then?

I mean can we use "them" in an independent clause wherein the antecedent of "them" is in another independent clause?

Will2020 · Answer

Explanation from Ceilidh Erickson - Manhattan Prep

Here's the tricky thing about verb tenses: sometimes several possible verb tenses could be correct in the same context. Consider:

New information leads me to believe that we were wrong. Present tense - just fine. It's what I'm believing now. 
New information lead me to believe that we were wrong. Past tense (because "lead" is one of those weird verbs who past tense looks the same as present tense, but is pronounced differently. English is weird!) - also totally fine! I changed my belief in the past. 
New information has lead me to believe that we were wrong. Present perfect - also totally fine! I changed my belief very recently, or am still in the process of doing so.

In this case, don't choose the verb tense that you think it should be, because the present could be right, but so could the present perfect. In fact, although all 3 examples above are perfectly correct, the 3rd one (present perfect) is the one you'll see most often used when we're talking about something that happened in the recent past (in your example, "recent studies") that have ongoing effects in the present (what the doctors conclude). That's what the present perfect is designed to indicate.

That alone doesn't make D or E wrong, though. In D, "lead to doctors concluding" is not idiomatically correct. "LEAD TO" should take a noun, so "lead to a conclusion" is better than "lead to concluding."

E is tricky, because it comes down to a subtlety in meaning. If we say "the doctors," we assume that we mean the same doctors who were mentioned before - the 19th century doctors. This doesn't make sense - they'd be 200 years old! In fact, that's the same issue that makes "them" and "their" wrong in A and B. We can't indicate that it's the same doctors.

So, that just leaves us with C.

_________________

Ceilidh Erickson

DavidDinh · Answer

(A) have led them to conclude => "them" is wrong 
(B) have led to their conclusion => "their" is wrong
(C) have led doctors to conclude => correct
(D) lead to doctors concluding => "Ving" is wrong
(E) lead to the doctors' conclusion => "The doctors' conclusion" means "Nineteenth-century doctors's conclusion" => wrong

VerbalBot · Answer

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Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed

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Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed

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